THE APOLLYON CHRONICLES:

BOOK 1

ABSOLUTION

WRITTEN BY:

LITTLE, A.G.


Ice Cream – I Scream

"To go through life as much alive as you are dead. When nothing in life really matters to you as it once did. The desire to scream for help, but knowing that you can't since no one will come. You're just used to feeling this way, so instead, you continue to do nothing about it." -Little, A.


Ever since I was a child, I've been capable of strange things. I was never sure of how I was capable of these things, but whenever I did, my mother would scold me. There were times I would go to bed, then wake up somewhere else. By the time I would get home, my mother would be hysterical. As it turned out, she had a reason to be. A very serious reason...

4 Yr. Old

"Mama, my back feels funny." I whined to the woman standing next to me. As I looked up at her, I could tell something was wrong. She was usually cheerful and extremely happy, but at that moment, she looked as though something bad was going to happen. "It's nothing, sweetie." She said, changing her expression briefly. Even with this, I knew she believed otherwise. I started to have a bad feeling, too, as we continued walking to an unknown destination deeper in the forest we were in. It wasn't until I felt my stomach grumble that she continued talking to me. "Okay, sweetie. We're here." After she said that, I didn't want to believe her. At that moment, we stood in front of an old, rundown cottage.

As I looked at the exterior, I didn't want to imagine what was on the inside. As the sun began to set, the dark, rotted exterior began to look increasingly sinister. I looked at mom to see her putting on a falsely courageous face. She then took my hand and lead me inside the hellish cottage. When we got inside, I was completely surprised. It wasn't a small, rundown cottage. In fact, despite the cold draft, the cottage was almost a large, two story house. I let go of my mom's hand and walked outside. I turned around to look at the cottage, and it still looked like a small mound with a door and windows. When I walked back inside, I was happy to see my mom genuinely smiling. "It's a nice place, isn't it?" She asked, to which I nodded my head furiously. We then started to wonder around the cottage, trying to find out which room we wanted.

When it was darker outside, my mom tucked me into my makeshift bed and said goodnight to me. "Night Mama. I love you." I said with a sigh. I could feel my eyelids become heavy as she kissed my forehead. "Night Sweetie. I'll see you in the morning." She said, then stood up and left the room. As she was closing the door, she whispered, "I love you, Dante. More than the world itself." I was happy after she said that. It seemed like the mom I knew was back. "Night, Mommy..." I whispered back. Then I fell asleep.

As I was asleep, I began to dream of being somewhere high. When I looked down, I could see the clouds and beneath them were hundreds of towns and cities, bustling with people going about their lives. "Those mortals are very ignorant. Some believe in God, others believe they are gods, but few know the truth." I looked up to see a middle aged man wearing a brown cloak. Underneath his cloak was a set of dark silver armor. He had tanned skin, dirty blonde hair, and a pair of white eyes. Note: I'm not saying his eyes were completely white, but the color was white. The strangest thing about the man's appearance was his wings. Attached to his back was three pairs of dark brown wings. Each pair covering the other, as if protecting it.

"Who are you?" I asked the man. To say he was scary would have been an understatement. Just from looking at him, I believed he would have killed anyone for any given reason. He was like the devil himself. He just seemed...bad. "Ah, I see your mother still intends on keeping you out of our world. How ignorant she is. She probably doesn't even know who you'll become." The way he talked, seemed almost malicious. He then took a deep breath before sighing. "Anyway, I brought you here to pass on my 'legacy'. You, boy, will live up to my expectations. You will live up to the name, Apollyon." After saying that, the man surged forward. I was paralyzed by his gaze as he stepped behind me and plunged something into my shoulders four times. All I could do as he did this was scream in agony with tears flowing from my eyes as the pain I felt was accompanied by thoughts of people dying in gruesome ways. I could see mothers and their children crying as one by one, each were dragged away from one another and killed. The man then whispered something in my ears before he vanished. The last thing he said to me was, "Make me proud, Dante Apollyon."

I then remembered waking up screaming as my mom held me tightly, rocking me back and forth in her arms. I could see the fear in her eyes as she looked at me. As I began to calm down, I started to think she knew what happened. I sat up, trying to rub my back, but I felt something cut my hand. I looked to see a small, deep cut on hand and I looked up to at my mom, who stared at me in shock. "Mommy, why is my hand bleeding?" I asked, looking at her with fear evident in both my face and voice. After what felt like an eternity, she started speaking. "Sweetie, look in the mirror." I stared at her for a moment, trying to find the courage to follow her instructions. Finally doing as I was told, I turned my head towards the mirror next to us... and what I saw sent my brain on overdrive. What I found was two pairs of obsidian black wings protruding from my back. The two largest wings were connected to my shoulder blades and seemed to be covering two smaller wings just beneath the other two.

As I was fixated with my wings, I began to lazily flap them then started inspecting the feathers. It was odd that I got cut from a feather, but when I accidentally pulled out a feather, a sharp pain shot throughout my body. After a few moments, I looked at mom briefly before going back to inspecting the feather. What was strange was the fact that the feather literally felt and looked like obsidian. It's smooth textures combined with it's razor sharp edges... it was almost as if my wings were made out of obsidian.

'How did I get these?' I thought to myself. 'Was it from that man?' It couldn't have been true, though, since he was just a dream. I just had to believe he was a dream I told myself. If he was a dream, then I wouldn't be this 'legacy' or whatever he called me. "Mom?" I asked looking at her. I was starting to become frightened she wouldn't love me if I had these wings. As far as I knew of, she didn't have wings, and neither did my grandma or grandpa. She looked at me with a sad expression on her face. Whatever these wings were doing on me, Mom really didn't like it. "What's wrong Mommy? Is it something to do with these wings?" I tried to ask her. All she did was stare at me, almost trying to analyze me. "I'm sorry if I did anything to make you hate me, Mommy..." I whispered, looking down to the floor. I could feel tears start to well up in my eyes as I began to believe she hated me. The pain I felt then was a lot worse then the pain in my dream.

"What? No, no! I don't hate you, Dante." Mom said, rushing forward and embracing me in a tight hug. My body tightened due to her sudden reaction, but then I slowly wrapped my arms around her and began to hug her. Finally, the tears that I had been keeping in started to flow freely, not because of my worrying she hated me, but because I was scared. These wings were both a cool thing to have and something that I was starting to fear. If that man really did give them to me, I didn't want to become him. I didn't want to be that kind of person, someone who would be willing to kill regardless of the reason, if any at all. "Dante, sweetie, let's go to bed. Tomorrow we'll sort through everything. I promise everything will be better." Mom said, lifting my chin up. I was happy she was still by my side, despite what had happened.

After a few minutes of getting sorted, trying to find a way to sleep in my bed, I ended up sleeping on my stomach so that I wouldn't destroy the bed. Later on that morning, I woke up screaming. My previous 'dream' was still haunting me.

6 Yrs. Old

"Dante, it's time for school! Get ready, or you're going to be late!" I heard my mom scream from downstairs. I lazily got out of bed, looking at myself in my full body mirror. "Man... I look terrible." I said to myself. I then began to throw on my clothes before checking myself in the mirror once again. I wore my usual clothes, which mainly consisted of dark blue jeans, black combat boots, a black long sleeve t-shirt, and an overcoat to hide my wings. Unfortunately, trench coats were banned at my school so I had to pull my wings as close to my body as possible underneath a large black coat that went just below my belly button. It was weird, being the only kid in my school with white eyes, but other than that, my appearance was somewhat normal. I had semi-long black hair, white skin, and a small scar on my bottom lip from a previous "accident".

"Dante! Come on!" I heard my mom yell, to which I began running down stairs. 'Hopefully, no one finds out today.' I thought to myself as I finally got out of the house and walked with my mom to our car. Within the 30 minutes it took us to get to school, my mom and I didn't really talk about anything besides my 'safety' plan in case anything happened at school. "Remember, Dante. If anyone wants you to change clothes, what do you say?" She prodded, making sure I knew what I was supposed to do. "Tell them I don't like wearing any clothes other than the one's you bring me." I said with a groan. This was a daily ritual for us. She wanted to burn it in my mind that No One should ever know about my wings. Even though school was nearly over, I wasn't aloud to be careless.

When we got to the school, I could see other kids being walked to their class by their parents. I got out of the car and said, "Love you Mom. See you after school." She just smiled at me warmly and waved her hand. Something about her was off, though. I could tell by looking into her eyes that she knew something was going to happen today. I continued to watch her as she drove off, driving in the opposite direction of our house. She wasn't supposed to be working today, so it was odd for her to drive off that way. "Dante! Come on! It's almost time for class!" I heard a girl scream from behind me. I just barely had enough time to dodge a hand about to hit my back before a few kids started laughing. "Looks like Dante and Sistine are going at it again." A kid said, then started laughing. "Think she's ever going to be able to touch him?" Another commented, earning mixed replies.

The girl they were talking about, well the one attacking me, had white hair, blue eyes, slightly tanned skin, and a wide smile on her face. Her smile was almost intoxicating to people because whenever she smiled, it was always enough to lighten the tension in a room. Her reflexes were almost like a cats, which fit the ribbon on her head, which was tied in the shape of a cat's ears. "Dante, stop dodging me! Let me hit you already!" The girl yelled in a complaining manner. As she continued to try and pelt me with slaps, I said, "Let me think about that." I stopped briefly, just long enough for her to try and follow through with a slap. "No." I said after a pause, sidestepping her hand, causing her to fall.

As her eyes widened, she tried to catch herself, but she was too late. She ended up falling on her face with her butt raised in the air, causing people to start laughing at her. "Guess she's too much of an idiot to realize no one's ever been able to touch Dante." Someone said, earning fits of laughter. I looked at them, causing them all to flinch and run away. I turned to Sistine, who was lying on the ground, curled up in a ball. I picked her up, earning a few words of disagreement, but when I didn't answer, she stopped. I walked her over to the nurse's office on the third floor of the school building. When I got inside, the nurse was at her desk looking at a watch on her wrist. "You're late, Dante. Sistine." The woman said, then gestured towards an empty bed. "Go ahead and lay her there." She continued. Doing as I was told, well more of a force of habit now, I laid her on the bed.

"You two should really stop. The morning is supposed to be a time for me to relax, not spend it treating your girlfriend." She said, making Sistine's face turn bright red. "I...It's not like that!" Sistine yelled, shaking her arms and head furiously. "What?" The nurse asked. "Don't you like him? He's a nice young man. Good looking, A sort of mysterious air about him." She continued, looking between Sistine and I. She then looked directly at me. "Don't tell me... You're gay!" She gasped, bring her hand to her mouth dramatically. "I have no clue of what you're talking about, Doc." I said, shaking my head slowly. "So you don't like boys?" She asked, continuing with her questions.

"No." I said simply.

"Girls?"

"Haven't thought about it, so guess not."

"Animals?"
"As pets, yes. Anything else, not really."

"You're certainly a strange one, Dante." The nurse said, finally. "I get that a lot." I replied coldly. "When's Sistine going to be ready for class?" I asked, looking into the nurse's eyes. "She'll be there by the end of first period. Now you should go before you get in trouble." She replied. After she said that, I left the room and went to my class on the first floor.

When I got inside the room, my teacher didn't even look in my direction, but asked, "Sistine again?" The way he asked the question made it clear this was a part of his daily life at school. "That shouldn't even be a question now." I replied. With that, I took my seat in the back of the room and stared out the window. By the time third period rolled around, Sistine was still gone. 'Probably nothing, but I should go check on her.' I thought to myself as I got up from my seat, interrupting my teacher who was talking about her dying father.

"Where are you going, Dante?" She asked, making it seem like I was being rude by leaving when she wasn't even doing her job. "Somewhere where someone actually does their job instead of talking about a dying parent to kids who don't even know who you're talking about." I replied in a cold tone, glaring at her for a brief moment before leaving the classroom. When I got to the second floor, I could hear muffled cries and hushing. "Shut up you stupid cunt!" Someone whispered. "If you don't shut the fuck up, I'm going to beat you until you do, then this is going to get worse. Understood?" Another one whispered. 'Fuck.' Was my last thought before I charged to the third floor and straight to the boy's bathroom. When I got inside, I found three teachers surrounding a little girl with messy white hair, tattered clothes, and a white ribbon in the shape of cat's ears.

The three teachers all had their pants off surrounding the little girl. I could see bruises along her body where her clothes were ripped, exposing her breasts and crotch. When one of them took notice, he nudged the guy next to him. "Haha, guess this little boy wants to play the hero. Or, he may want to join in." One of the three spoke, causing the other two to laugh. "Nah, he's just a pussy." Another spoke. "Leave. Now." I told them. For some reason, a searing pain was shooting from a spot on my back, causing my vision to become red, but I couldn't black out now. "Ooh, we've got a tough guy on our hands. Look kid, you may be able to scare other kids, but were grown ass men. A little punk like you isn't scary in the least." The last one spoke, causing the other two to nod their agreements.

As I stood there, I could see the light coming into the restroom was becoming less and less as the seconds grew. The air became colder as I could feel the pain working it's way closer to my mind, almost trying to consume me. At this time, ignoring the faint light, the first teacher walked up to me and grabbed one of my shoulders before attempting to punch my face. Before his fist was able to connect, I saw his expression change from one of anger to one of terror. "What's that on his face!" He screamed, attempting to push me away, but failed. I punched one of his hands, sending him flying through a wall. Turning my attention on the other two men, I could feel my wings shoot through my jacket, no doubt tearing it up.

"He's a demon!"

"The Devil!"

These two descriptions of me were the last thing I remember before my vision darkened. When I woke up, Sistine was holding my head in her lap as we sat in the hallway leading to the roof. I grabbed my head as I tried to sit up, but was held down by Sistine's hands. "You shouldn't get up, yet." She said, looking at me with worry. "What happened? I don't remember anything past them calling me 'The Devil'." I asked Sistine. She continued to look at me for a few moments before saying, "Well, you kind of threw them through the wall and outside. Luckily, the pool was outside, but when they fell in, they scared a bunch of kids because of their being without pants. The police came and picked them up a little over an hour ago. After you threw them out of the building, you collapsed, so I brought you here so no one would see your wings."

I stared up at her, trying to find out why she would have done this, but then I thought back to what the nurse had asked and figured that was probably why. "What time is it?" I asked her. I didn't hear any students at the school anymore, and the sun was starting to set outside, so it must have been late. I was going to need to head home before mom began to worry. "It's 7:25. School's been over for a while, but I didn't want to take you anywhere else since your wings would stick out like a sore thumb." She said, sounding pretty thoughtful as well as smart. "Don't you have to be home?" I asked her, causing her face to darken. "No. I don't have a home to go to." With her dark expression, it was kind of hard to believe she was usually so cheerful, although I guess that would have been expected since she was traumatized not to long ago.

"Want to come home with me, then? I'm sure my mom would like to meet you... and ask you about what you saw today. Maybe... even try to convince you not to tell anyone about my...secret." I said, trying to offer her some help for what she'd done for me. "Why?" Sistine asked me curiously. I had to make sure my secret was safe, and I trusted her. At least a little bit since she'd kept me from being seen by anyone else. Although, I was wondering if those men were still alive, or if I actually killed them... "You shouldn't be all alone, whether that be at school or at home." I said, taking a brief pause. "Since you say you don't have a place to go to, then I want you to come live with me and my mom. I'm positive if we explain what happened, she'd gladly take you in." I finished, putting my hand out for her.

After she grabbed my hand, I took her on the roof and moved towards the direction of my house 9 miles to the North West from where the school was. "Since our clothes are torn, and I need to get back home soon, I think we should fly back." I said, then looked at Sistine for approval. "Is that okay, Sistine?" I asked, making sure she was okay with it. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if you get spotted by someone? What if..." She started firing different questions at me until I placed my index finger on her lips and hushed her. "Do you trust me, Sistine?" I asked. If she trusted me, then we wouldn't have any problems. If she didn't... then I'd have to earn it, bit by bit.

I could see her look me straight in the eyes as she nodded, then said, "100%." After hearing this, I smiled warmly at her as I wrapped my arms around her, squeezing her slightly. "Thank you, Sistine." After our little hugging session, I let go, then bent down to grab her and place her in my arms as I ran towards the edge of the roof before jumping off. For a brief moment, we were plummeting to the ground and the only thing Sistine did was wrap her arms around my neck, squeezing a little bit. Finally, I unfurled my wings and began to fly us towards my house.

After 15 minutes, Sistine began to speak again. "Were you born with your wings?" As she asked that question, I began to remember what happened over two years ago. That man, what he said to me, the pain I felt, and the lives of the people I would occasionally see every week... "No. They kind of just appeared two years ago. Before that, I was just a normal human. I think in some cases, I still might be." I said, looking at her for a few moments. There was a bit of understanding in the way she looked now, almost as if she understood what I meant, but I didn't want to ask then. If she had wanted to talk about it, then it would be best to wait until she had calmed down after what had happened that day.

"Here we are." I said, landing in front of a small cottage in the middle of a large forest. "Are you sure you have enough room?" She asked as I set her down on the ground. "Yeah, let's go inside and meet my mom." As I finished this, my mom bolted out the front door and grabbed me in a tight hug. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, DANTE!? IT'S ALMOST 9:30 PM! I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" She paused, letting me go as she looked at Sistine. "Who are you? How did you get here?" She asked, then looked at her tattered clothes and bruises, then back at me. "This is Sistine Holmes. She's a classmate of mine. I actually brought her here because she doesn't have a home to go to... Also... she was hurt by three teachers..." I said, making my mom look at Sistine with sadness as Sistine hung her head low. I could see tears start to well up in her eyes as I knew she was remembering what they were doing to her.

Before I knew what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around her, trying to comfort her. Without my meaning to, my wings then gently wrapped around both of us. Sistine then began to cry louder as she was finally able to grieve over what had happened. All I could do at that moment was just be there, letting her cry on my shoulder, rubbing her back and the back of her head softly. After what felt like an eternity, she stopped crying and I could hear soft breathing coming from her. I then whispered to mom, "I think she fell asleep." She nodded at me, then held the door open as I carried Sistine into the house then up to my bedroom where I placed her on my bed, tucked her in, then left saying, "Goodnight, Sistine."

"Mom..." I started, looking up at her. She just hushed me, then lead me to the living room, where we sat on the coach. "Dante, what happened at school today?" She asked me. I then took a deep breath before telling her what happened and how it came to my letting Sistine sleep in my bed. When I was finished, she stared off in the distance, almost like she was searching for something. After a few minutes of this, she looked at me then nodded. "Can she live here with us?" I was almost pleading with her, making my mom chuckle. "Of course, Sweetie. She's just a little girl, and to be alone at night, especially after what she's gone through, it's practically unthinkable."

I leaned over and hugged her tightly, saying "Thank you" a couple times before she told me to go to bed, since I had school tomorrow. "What about Sistine?" I asked, worried about her. "She's going to be spending the day with me. We're going to go out shopping for clothes and other things she's going to need." With that, my mom left the living room, and I had to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, I woke up as I was plummeting to the ground from the clouds. I was trying to frantically get my wings to start moving, but they were frozen, pulled tightly next to my back not responding to my attempts and unfurling them. Evidently, they had enough of life and decided to let me die, or at least that was what I thought until I was finally able to unfurl them just before I went splat on the road. Luckily for me, I didn't go splat, but there was a pregnant woman driving her car towards me, and ended up driving off the road and into a tree, completely destroying her car. I frantically dropped down next to her car, and immediately pulled off her door, trying to get her out of the smoking car.

"HEY! HEY! WAKE UP!" I screamed at the woman as I was dragging her away from the car. Suddenly, the car exploded, sending both of us flying backwards. Just before we hit a tree, I was able to enclose both of us in my wings, preventing any further damage to the woman or her unborn baby. As we hit the tree, my head flew backwards and I started to feel blood trickle downwards, blurring my vision. After a few moments, the woman began to stir, groaning slightly. When she opened her eyes, I thought I heard her say my name, but I could have just been hearing things. "I need to take you to the hospital!" I tried screaming for the woman to understand, to which she nodded.

As I tried to stand up, my left leg gave out, sending me sprawling on the floor. When I looked at it, I could see a piece of the bone sticking out where my shin was. I then looked at the woman, and could see she was in pain, screaming as she held her stomach. "WE NEED TO HURRY!" She screamed at me, sending my brain on overdrive. Ignoring the pain shooting throughout my entire body, I grabbed the woman and shot into the air, flying towards the hospital a few miles from where we were.

"We'll be there shortly! You need to hold on!" I told her, trying to fly as fast as I could while keeping her from falling. I then dropped right in front of a two adults in uniform walking towards an ambulance. When I landed, I screamed in pain as I felt my left leg break more. "HELP HER! SHE'S ABOUT TO HAVE HER BABY!" I screamed at the two, snapping them out of their trance. They then took the woman from my arms, put her on gurney, then took her into the hospital. Two other people dressed like the others ran up to me, doing the same thing to me. Within a span of a few moments, we were next to the woman I had just tried to help, and I could see her smile warmly at me as she said, "Until next time, Dante." After she had said that to me, I blacked out from sensory overload.

When I woke up, I was in a gown on a hospital bed with doctors and nurses surrounding me. "You're awake!" A nurse screamed, getting the attention of all of the people present in the room. "What happened?" I asked them, trying to figure out why I wasn't in my clothes, or what happened to the woman and her child, or even why it was now dark outside. "When you..." A doctor started, then coughed, "...fell from the sky, our EMTs where about to head out, but then took the woman into the ER so she could give birth to her baby. You were brought into the hospital because of the bruising on your body as well as your broken limbs." After she said that, I looked down at the cast on my left arm and legs. Another doctor then began to speak. "We found out about your... wings. Unfortunately, we weren't able to treat them, since we aren't veterinarians or have even seen a human with wings before, so we left them alone."

I'm sure by the expression on my face, that she knew I was in shock about their finding out about them, so she continued speaking. "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. We've come across some strange humans since the founding of our hospital. None of which we've told anyone else about." I honestly didn't know if she was lying and trying to consul me, or if she was telling the truth, but I decided to give her a chance. "How is the woman and her baby? Are they hurt?" I asked, trying to figure out if they were okay. "The woman had bruising on her body, a few minor fractures along her arms and legs, but other than that, they're both fine." The doctor said, to which I let out a sigh of relief. "What happened? Also, weren't you supposed to be in school?" She continued.

"I should have been, but I woke up falling from the clouds today. Just before I hit the ground, I was able to stop my fall, but I scared that woman, sending her off the road and hitting a tree. I had to pull off her door to get her out of the car because it was smoking. When I got her a few feet from the car, it exploded, flinging her and I back into a tree." I said, then paused, letting everyone soak it all in before continuing. "I had to wrap both of us in my wings to prevent any further damage to her or her baby, but I ended up hurting the back of my head and breaking my leg. After a few moments, I got us both up in the air and a while later, we landed at the hospital. After getting inside the hospital, I don't remember anything else."

I could see everyone process what I told them, some looking utterly surprised at my day, others seemingly happy about what I did, although, one seemed angry as he left the room. "Is he okay?" I asked the remaining people, some being a little nervous. "It should be okay. He's had bad experiences with Non-human species in the past." The head doctor told me, which sounded like a reasonable excuse, although I was still surprised to know that there were other people at least a little bit like me. People who were special. People I could relate to.

"Can I see the woman? I want to apologize for earlier." I told the doctor, to which she smiled and said something to one of the nurses inside the room. Within a few moments, the nurse came back inside the room with a wheelchair, then they began to place me into the chair. After we left the room, we had to take an elevator down to the second floor where infants and their mothers were being held. When we got to the second floor, the doctor wheeled me down a few halls, then stopped in front of a door. Something was weird about the room I was in front of. It was a nice, familiar feeling, but something else was there. Something... bad. At that moment, I honestly had no idea how to describe what I felt.

"Here we are!" The woman said, opening the door then wheeling me inside. When I looked at the woman on the bed inside, she was looking at something in her arms with a wide smile on her face. After a few moments, the woman took notice of the doctor and I and said, "You're here! Come, come look at my baby girl!" She said, gesturing for me to come forward. After the doctor rolled me forward, I was able to stand up and look at the woman's child. As I looked at the baby girl, she smiled at me. Her grey eyes seemed to shine brightly at me, making it hard for me not to smile back at her. She was... beautiful. "Her name's Mia. Mia Saint June." The woman said. After she had said this, I thought I could see something... a scene of sorts, play in my mind.

*SCENE*

In this scene, there was a little girl attacking me. She had wings, similar to mine and was wielding two daggers. She had red hair, grey eyes, porcelain white skin, and a smile that felt both familiar... and painful. The clothing she wore consisted of a black hoodie, a white tank top, blue jeans, and black and white sneakers. This little girl also had two pairs of pearly-white wings which she would occasionally attempt to use as weapons. Though this little girl was cute, the look in her eyes made it clear she wanted to kill me, which was pretty scary.

"WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME!" I screamed at the girl, trying to get an answer from her. "It's what the Father wanted." She said, rotating on her heels, spinning like a top as her wings cut into my stomach, making blood pour out. "Because you refuse to do as you were told all those years ago... and now, he's made me his successor." She continued before taking a pause, throwing her knives into my legs, causing me to collapse. After I collapsed, I could feel my heart begin to break. I didn't want to believe this, but it was happening and I was powerless to stop it. I wouldn't stop her... I couldn't stop her...

She then turned away from me as a flash of light struck the ground behind us. "Father, I've done as you commanded." The girl said, almost as if she was proud of herself. "No. You're far from over. He needs to die for your task to be complete, other wise, he must accept his heritage." A man spoke as he walked towards us. I could feel my heart stop as he looked directly at me with those same eyes he did years prior. "Ah, Dante. I see you remember me. That's good. Then now you know what this girl means by 'the Father'." He took a deep breath before continuing. "You remember your mother, don't you? How she attacked you... How she screamed at you... The tears flowing from her eyes as she began to realize WHO you were?" After he said that, I could feel my heart clench more and more as I remembered everything he was saying.

"Why..." I whispered, hanging me head low, tears beginning to well in my eyes. "Hmm? Did you say something, boy?" The man asked, cocking his head slightly, kneeling down before me. "WHY?! WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?!" I demanded, punching him in jaw as I stood up, the pain in my legs growing as I felt other sources of pain shoot from different spots on my back. The pain began to blur my vision as dark lines began to spread all over my body. The Father then glared at me before smiling with an evil passion. "Good, good. Lose control. Give in to yourself. Become a true Apollyon!" He said before I sent him flying forward with a single punch. Just before he hit a tree a few yards away, he caught himself, but it was too late for him. The pain I was feeling felt as though it was changing my body. My breathing sounded as though it was from some kind of predator and in the cold morning, everyone's breathing could be seen, although the Father's breathing was becoming more rapid as I drew closer to him.

In his eyes, I could see the fear he now held for me. The fear of dying. The same fear everyone he's killed had felt. "D...Dante! STOP! YOU NEED TO STOP!" I heard a girl behind me say as she grabbed my arm. When I turned to look at her, I no longer found the hatred she had for me just moments before, but instead, I found fear in it's place. "Please don't kill him! Leave him be! Kill me instead!" She screamed at me, and I felt my heart clench. I could feel my pain start to subside as I looked her in the eye, but soon felt something stab into my side, and when I down, I found a large knife being twisted in my gut.

"You'll always be weak, Dante. That's why your mother shouldn't have taken you from me, but because she did, she became senile." The Father spoke in my ear as I began to fall backwards. Just as my vision began to darken, I heard him say, "Everyone who tries to protect you will die. They will all die in such horrific ways, you'll never get their faces out of your mind. I'll make you believe you're the one that killed them. It. Will. All. Be. Your. Fault." When he was done speaking, I felt something get plunged into my neck, making me begin to choke on what I knew was my own blood. I only had enough time to look directly at Mia who's face adorned a shocked expression before my vision completely darkened and I soon passed out.

*END OF SCENE*

"...Dante?..."

"Dante!"

I was startled by a couple of people screaming my name. When I looked around, I found myself in a hospital bed surrounded by numerous people. Out of all of those people, I found my Mom and Sistine looking at me with tears in their eyes. "What happened?" I asked, squeezing Sistine's hand slightly. "We've been looking everywhere for you!" Sistine screamed at me, squeezing my hand tightly. "What happened this morning, Dante?" My mom asked, trying to stay calm, but I could tell she was bursting at the seems. "Well, it started when I woke up falling..." I started, telling them everything that happened to me this morning and all the way throughout my day. When I had finished telling them everything, I was starting to become distracted by a group of helicopters going throughout the city we were in. At night, with the group of helicopters circling throughout the city, it looked like they were trying to find something...

"Is something wrong, Dante?" Sistine asked me, looking at me with worry written all over her face. "No, I'm fine. Just glade I was able to see you two." I said to her, making her face turn a dark shade of red. "Hey, Doc? When will I be going home?" I asked the doctor as she stood in the room with us. "You can leave now, if you'd like. As far as we can tell, you're healthy, but you should take it easy for a few days just to be sure." She said, earning a sigh of relief from my mother and Sistine. "Alright, well, I guess let's head out then." I said, taking off the needles and other things connected to my body, slinging my legs over the bed and walking to my clothes. I didn't realize it, but I wasn't paying attention to anyone else as I began to strip from my hospital gown into my regular clothes, which was still tattered and stained with blood.

"D...Dante..." I heard Sistine start, acting as if she was embarrassed. When I looked at her, I could see her face becoming an even darker shade of red. "What?" I asked her, looking at her with suspicion until the doctor said something that left a big question in my mind. "Dante, your body's changed..." After she had said that, I looked down at myself and found that my chest looked like that of a body builder with hair starting to grow on it and my stomach. The small amount of fat that I used to have was now lean muscle, almost as if I had been working out for years, instead of asleep for a few hours.

"What happened to my body?" I asked the doctor, to which she just stammered, turning the same shade of red as Sistine. "Are you guys okay? I asked them, to which the doctor just left, leaving Sistine, my Mother and I in the room. "Dante, I don't know how to say this, but... I think you grew up while you were asleep..." My mom said, for some reason making my head start to ache with the familiar pain I had experienced just before I woke up. "What do you mean you, 'think I grew up in my sleep'? How is that even possible?!" I asked, almost becoming hysterical. If this had something to do with what I had seen earlier, than my day had just reached a 10 on the weirdness scale.

I had started to realize that, as I stood, I wasn't shorter than my mom, but instead I was almost as tall as her, leaving Sistine the shortest out of the three of us. "So, what will I wear since my clothes don't fit?" I asked her, realizing that with my sudden body change, none of my clothes would fit anymore. Before she could reply, the doctor walked inside the room carrying a paper bag. "Here. These should fit until you can get new clothes." She said as she handed me the bag. When I looked inside, I found a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and a black trench coat. "Thank you." I said with a smile as I looked her in the eyes. Without a reply, the doctor left the room in a rush, leaving me clueless as to why she and Sistine were acting weird.

"I...I'm going to head into the lobby... I'll wait for you guys when you're done..." Sistine said, before she to ran out of the room. It was starting to become weird for me as these girls/woman would suddenly leave. I was also starting to think that Sistine didn't like me anymore, and as I began to sulk, I could feel the air around me begin to chill. "Dante, it's okay." I heard my mom say, as she was hugging me tightly. Being pulled out of my I looked at her, and asked her something that was starting to bug me. "Mom... I don't understand why Sistine just left us like that..." I could tell it was hard for her to say what she wanted to say, but she just looked at me and said, "Dante, Sistine should be the one to tell you why she's like that around you, not me. One day, I'm sure she'll tell you, but now, I think you should leave it be."

I hung my head a bit before nodding. If Sistine doesn't hate me, then everything should be fine. I thought to myself. After I finished gathering my belongings, I left the hospital room with Mom and headed down to the lobby where Sistine stood, waiting for us. "Hey, Sistine!" I yelled, scaring Sistine as she jumped a few feet into the air. When I started laughing, she glared at me before punching the right side of my chest. When she did that, she looked directly at me, her face going from one of anger, to one that was bright red. She then jumped away from me, walking away from us. "Okay, that's enough you two." Mom said, dragging me after Sistine. When we got outside the hospital, we walked to our car, getting inside, then drove back home.

That night, I was able to sleep in my room again, but I ended up waking up screaming someone's name. I could feel my body change. It felt like it was growing... changing in a way it shouldn't. The one person that came into my room was Sistine, who's face looked as if she was worried for me. After she sat on my bed, we began to talk. Within a few moments, I felt my body become heavy and soon I was resting my head on Sistine's shoulder. As I began to fall asleep, I could have sworn I heard her say something that ended with my name. Something along the lines of, "...you, Dante."